About a month ago, I finally decided that it was time to upgrade the Kaz Arts computer station . It had been a long time since I had kept up with computer technology (since about the last time I built a machine 6 years ago) and didn’t quite know where to begin. So, what better place to go to for answers? Good ‘ole dad, the electrical engineer and all around electronic and mechanical genius. Which leads into an interesting story…

Ten years ago, Kaz Arts (as it is known today) began as a customized computer consulting business. My father and I were very much into computers and technology and we spec’ed out, designed, and put together computers for high-end video-editing, graphics use, and computer gamers. One of our clients, a photographer, had asked if I knew how to use the Adobe Photoshop program. As an early adopter of digital capture, I had been using Adobe Photoshop since version 3.0. So I began training him in Adobe Photoshop, he spread the word to his friends, and the business sort of took off from there. And here we are today…doing & teaching all aspects of photography, image processing, and image reproduction.

Back to the story of the computer now. My father offered his suggestions, and I mixed-and-matched components with what fit into my *budget* for the building of this machine. As with anything in life, things will always cost more and take longer than you always initially think they will. But that was fine, as I foresee using this machine for as long as my previous machine was in use (6 years). Here’s the general spec sheet:

We have finished taking all of the images for our huge digital vs. film show-down. The film is currently in queue for processing and I will post a list of all the film types shot and also all digital formats shot as soon as we group everything into a single place. The write up & review will probably come in chunks, so be prepared for a lot of information coming your way. We have done this test to attempt to settle the score on the current digital technology and its quality level versus the traditional photographic medium.

Today’s post is not a structured formal review – there will be plenty of those coming in the weeks ahead as new products will begin to ship from the manufacturers. Instead, today’s article is just a casual discussion about the wide format printer I have been using for the past year: the Epson 4880 with Vivid Magenta Inks. I have owned the printer for 13 months, 12 of which I have actually used the printer. Much to my dismay, when the printer initially arrived it sat in its box for about a month as there were other projects going on, and quite honestly no place to put it yet as we really had no idea how large this sucker actually was! By the way, in case you are wondering – it’s heavy too, about 90lbs!